"The Boss is Coming to Dinner!" It was an ordinary Tuesday morning. I finished walking my dogs and sent my husband off to work. I was relaxing with my morning cup of coffee when I heard my cell phone's loud ripping ring. It was my husband. He said, "Hey, I want to invite my boss over tonight for dinner. Can you fix something?" OH MY GOSH! I am not a good cook. So, I told him I would make spaghetti, which never goes wrong. It was 9:30AM. The boss was not coming until 5PM.
I started out by mowing the lawn,...not the grass, the WEEDS!! Why did I "mow the weeds"? Well, it was because I did not have time to pull them all out. You don't want to give a bad first impression of your house with a lawn full of weeds. I needed to do something to those weeds, so I mowed them. By the time I finished that, wiping down the windows, which were covered by salt from the sea breeze, mopping down the kitchen floor, and cleaning the door and floor of the entrance, it was noon.
I was so exhausted, and again, I got a phone call from my husband, who said, "I am so sorry, but my boss just had spaghetti for lunch. Could you make something else?" "WHAT?!?!" I totally panicked. Like I said before, I am not a good cook. Spaghetti was already on my mind, so I couldn't think of anything else. I was furious with him on the phone.
Anyways, I didn't have time for this stress! I cleaned the bathroom, polished the faucet and mirror, and went shopping. The dinner would start with appetizers of crackers and nuts with wine, followed by a salad, then, shepherd's pie, black beans, and some garlic toasts, until finally, apples for dessert. I still had two hours before the boss arrived. I would need 30 minutes for cleaning the kitchen, so I had to make it all come together in just an hour and a half.
First, I started making the pie. I was supposed to put some tomato puree, but instead, I mistakenly used a can of cooked tomatoes. It was unbelievably watery, and I put everything but the kitchen sink in there to try and cover up my mistake. I felt full already from all that taste-testing. I somehow made it good enough to eat and then started making the dressing for the salad. It was a dressing made with anchovies and lemon juice. You'll never believe what happened next! When I went to taste it, I could not taste anything! Maybe it was because I had tasted too much already when making that darn pie. I tried adding a bunch of different salts, because at this point, I really didn't care. Still, I tasted nothing!. Well, whatever, onto the next dish! I prepared a salad and crackers with smoked salmons, and I was done. I cleared up the kitchen and there was still time left. As I was about to go out for an evening walk with my dogs and chickens, the boss arrived. The dogs got so excited and barked at him until they finally jumped all over me. By the time I said hello to him, I was stumbling everywhere.
Finally came dinner time. Well, my dressing was so salty! I put a lot of green peppers (fresh from my garden) into the salad, but the boss didn't seem to like them. I put some garlic toasts in the oven but forgot to turn on the timer since I was too nervous. By the time I noticed something was wrong, all I could see was black!
You know, by then, I needed a drink right away away.
I let him eat the pie which I was certainly not proud of since while it was cooking, smoke arose from the oven. During dessert time, he praised me on how beautifully I could peel the apples, which was the only thing left that he could praise me on. Then he finally left.
After he left, I suddenly felt dizzy. I know exactly why, too. There was an open bottle of wine. The boss drank two glasses, and my husband did not drink any since he had to take his boss to the hotel. So, put two and two together. It means that I drank almost an entire bottle of wine by myself. That night, I could not clean the kitchen as I was pretty comatose! The next morning, I had a hangover. Oh, I felt really bad. It could not have been any worse.
